June 2012 'the wettest ever'

One of the key features of the month has been that the far north west of the UK, traditionally the wettest part of the country, has been remarkably dry.

Up until quite late in the month, a few stations in this area were below their record lowest rainfall amounts - but they just missed the record books with rain falling in the last few days of the month.

According to the Met Office this June has seen periods of heavy and prolonged rain, as well as short but exceptionally heavy showers.

Many areas have seen extremely high rainfall - with 83 (out of 237) observation sites marking their wettest June on record.

Some of these aren't significant as they have short recording histories, but others have been operating much longer - Otterbourne in Hampshire has been operating for 119 years. This is the second record breaking month of rainfall this year, with April also topping the rankings.

The period from April to June is also the wettest recorded for the UK. Unsettled weather has never been far from the UK during the past three months, with only the latter half of May seeing a spell of prolonged fine weather.

• It has been the wettest June on record for Wales and Northern Ireland
• Second wettest in England
• Eighth wettest in Scotland

Movements in the track of the jet stream are responsible for much of the weather Britain has seen.

It is positioned further north than usual.

The jet stream is a narrow band of fast flowing westerly winds high in the atmosphere.

The total rainfall figure of 145.3mm is exactly twice as much as you would normally expect compared to the 1971-2000 average.

It was also the second dullest June on record:

• 119.2 hours of sunshine, narrowly missing out on the record of 115.4 hours set in 1987
• To complete the disappointing picture, it has also been the coolest June since 1991 with a mean temperature of 12.3C

Provisional figures from the Met Office show:

• The UK received 145.3mm (5.7 inches) during June
• It beats the previous record of 136.2mm (5.4 inches) seen in June 2007
• It is the second month this year to see record-breaking amounts of rain, after this April became the wettest in the records dating back more than a century to 1910.

Provisional figures from the Met Office show last month was the wettest June in the UK according to records dating back more than a century to 1910.